The Spread of Islam

One thing to understand concerning Islam is that there’s no distinguishing between the religion and government/law. They’re one and the same.

• To be fair, some differ on this, but it is the attitude of traditional Muslim societies.

• Sharia

• Means ‘way’ or ‘path’

• Body of laws that govern how Muslims are to live.

• Regulates everything: personal matters, morality, family, community, business, government, et al.

After Mohammed dies in 632, Abu-Bakr is elected as his successor – the caliph.

• It would have been easier had Mohammed assigned a successor or a method of succession, but he didn’t.

• Abu Bakr was an early convert (610 – the fourth person to accept it) who “was a man with fair skin, thin, emaciated, with a sparse beard, a slightly hunched frame, sunken eyes and protruding forehead, and the bases of his fingers were hairless.” Good to know.

• He quickly goes on the offensive against Muslim apostates and rival tribes and then goes up against the Persians and Byzantines.

Abu Bakr

Both the Persians and Byzantines were weakened from decades of warring against each other.

The Sassanid Empire in 610.

By 750, it’s gone.

Byzantine Empire in 565.

Byzantine Empire in 717.

• The invading Muslims take advantage of the Persian and Byzantine weakness.

• The people in the invasion areas were receptive to Muslim rule.

• The area was in between the two empires and had been the site of most of the warfare. The people were also often used as frontline troops. So neither empire was popular with them.

• The Muslims also allowed them to continue practicing their own religions (or particular flavor) instead of being heavily persecuted or considered heretics.

Succession problems return

• After Abu Bakr, Uman becomes caliph, and then Uthman.

• Uthman, though, gets assassinated.

Koran supposedly with spots of Uthman’s blood on it (but likely not).

• Ali, Mohammed’s cousin and son-in-law, becomes caliph.

• War erupts between Ali and the Umayyad clan.

• Ali later gets assassinated.

• The Ummayads appoint their own person as caliph.

• This all causes the Shi’a/Sunni split in Islam.

• For the Shi’a (the party of Ali), only someone related to Mohammed can be caliph.

• In Sunnism, any qualified individual can be caliph.

• From here, the historical split grows wider.

Umayyads.

• They move the capital from Mecca to Damascus in modern-day Syria.

• The Islamic empire also conquers to both the east (running into Buddhism) and the west, conquering Roman territory in North Africa and even conquering Spain.

• Spread into western Europe is stopped only Charles Martel (THE HAMMER!) at the Battle of Tours in 732.

Hammer Time!

• The Muslims were unable to break into eastern Europe due to the Byzantines. So they went in another way.

• At this point, Muslims held Spain and one Muslim leader sent a raiding party across the Pyrenees and into France.

• They weren’t out to conquer territory on this mission, they were just pillaging and getting loot from the Frankish countryside.

• By the time of the battle, the Muslims had already accumulated significant booty which they had already stashed and/or dispatched back to Spain.

• 80,000 Muslims (some modern historians claim it was closer to 30,000) engage 30,000 Franks under THE HAMMER.

• The Muslims relied on heavy cavalry charges, armed with lances and scimitars.

• The Franks were mainly infantry armed with axes, swords, and javelins.

• The Franks establish a defensive square and dare the Muslims to attack – they do.

• Repeated attack waves by the Muslims fail to break the defensive square. But they get cut down.

• Some Muslims break off the attack when word gets out that the Franks are raiding their plunder (it was a ruse by Charles), so they go to protect it. The other Muslims see this, think it’s a retreat and so they run too. (Many a battle has been lost because soldiers were more concerned with loot than with defeating the enemy.)

• The Muslim general is killed in the process.

• After Tours, the Muslims never again make a serious incursion across the Pyrenees. The battle is thus hailed as stopping Muslim conquests in the west, saving Western Europe (which likely would not have been able to stop a full-scale invasion that almost certainly would have occurred had Charles lost), and saving Christianity.

• It was also for this victory that Charles got his nickname: THE HAMMER!

• Dhimmitude

• Status of non-Muslims (dhimmis) in the Muslim world.

• Originally covers just Christians and Jews (the people of the book), but is expanded to include others as the empire expands and absorbs other cultures.

• Had to pay a special tax – the jizya.

• Had to wear identifying clothing.

• Could not bear arms.

• Could not testify against Muslims in court.

• Different punishments.

• Looked down upon – they gave up the truth.

• Even non-Muslims who converted – the Mawali – could still be subject to Dhimmi measures because it would otherwise dilute the power, wealth, and loot of the Arab Muslims.

• Had to pay a special tax – the jizya.

• Had to wear identifying clothing.

• Could not bear arms.

• Could not testify against Muslims in court.

• Different punishments.

• Looked down upon – they gave up the truth.

• So the non-Muslims weren’t treated well by our modern standards, but they were treated very well for standards at the time, especially contrasted with the Christian realms where non-Christians (and even heretical Christians) were forced to convert, were executed, or exiled.

Eventually the Umayyad become too decadent and too protective of their power.

• A coalition of Malawi and others came together under the Abbasid banner.

• The Abbasids were associated with Shi’a and never did like the Umayyads much.

• The Umayyads are defeated at the Battle of Zab in 750.

• The rest are invited to a little soiree in their honor… at which they’re wrapped in rugs and killed.

• Rude.

• The rest of the Umayyads are hunted down and killed.

It looked something like this.

The Abbasids are coming!

Shoot! They don’t have rugs, do they?

Umayyad Abbasids

• One prominent member of the family makes it out and becomes the caliph of Cordoba in Moorish Spain.

• Abd ar-Rahman I, aka:

Umayyad mosque in Damascus

Dome of the Rock

Rusafa city gate in Syria

Abbasids

• Start to consolidate centralized power in themselves.

• Move the capital from Damascus to Baghdad.

• Less Arab influence and closer to their Malawi support base.

• Appointed the position of wazir (vizier). The right-hand man of the ruler who wielded a great deal of political power.

• The Abbasid caliphs became rather decadent and went against the Muslim ideal Muslim equality.

• They also started persecuting the Shi’i with whom they were previously aligned.

• Malawi start to become accepted and no longer second-class citizens in relation to the Arab Muslims.

• Not a surprise since they were now such a large component of the Muslims.

• Other conquered cultures also brought with them certain talents that could be used.

• The Persians, for example, were excellent administrators and were useful in government.

There were several factors that helped the expansion effort:

1. Religious fervor. Fighting for God and salvation tends to be more motivating than fighting for a king or emperor.

2. As we mentioned, the Roman and Byzantine Empires were weakened. As was the old Persian Empire.

3. Others were not used to the Arab style of warfare

• It involved highly mobile cavalry and mounted archers. This worked well against the infantry-based Western armies.

4. Treatment of conquered people.

• Those who were conquered found Islam attractive and many converted.

• Those who didn’t convert were spared.

• Not free equals to the Muslims, though, they were dhimmis. As such, they were second-class citizens.

After the right-ruling caliphs pass, there are civil wars for who will lead Islam.

• The Umayyads, who base the Muslim capital in Damascus, make the caliphate hereditary.

Eventually, you get a split

• The Shia believe that the caliph needs to be a relative of Mohammed (they trace the caliphate from Mohammad’s son-in-law Ali).

• The Sunni believe that any good Muslim can be the caliph.